


since you've been gone

by Alison_Parker



Series: Merlin Reincarnated-AU [2]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, M/M, New York City, Reincarnation, and morgana isn't morgana, arthur isn't arthur, not beta read we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-18 23:27:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20321284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alison_Parker/pseuds/Alison_Parker
Summary: Merlin quits his job and goes is search of his lost love... but when have things ever been easy for him?





	since you've been gone

**Author's Note:**

> kind of a part two to the first ficlet, but either can be read alone, but they do make more sense together. title based on the kelly clarkson song that was playing when I posted (you know whats up). this is not betaed, and tbh I barely reread it before posting, I just HAD to get it out. More will be coming!!

Merlin quit his bike messenger job the next day. Delivering endless messages to companies and packages to people didn’t seem as important anymore. The job was just to keep his mind busy anyways. He spent most of the next few days holed in his dark room on his old laptop researching all he could about the Hightower Corporation. 

The Arthur Pendragon he knew was now Alexander Hightower in this life and the heir to a large insurance business originally based in London. His father, Anthony, moved the business west to America and all the gossip said that he intended on making Alexander the head of the American office as well as the CEO when Anthony retired (much to the distaste of Alexander’s dark haired sister, Morgan. Well, at least that’s what the gossip had said). 

Merlin went to the company’s website and found a page that explained the company’s story. Anthony started his business from the ground up when he was twenty-five blah blah blah, and at the bottom of the page was a picture of the family. Merlin swallowed thickly as he looked over the familiar faces—Uther, Morgana and Arthur—all captured on camera. It was so strange to see the same faces that he knew before on bodies wearing pantsuits in a  _ photograph _ . Merlin could almost hear the old Uther calling such things sorcery. 

At the bottom of the page was the address of their New York office. Merlin bit his lip and then hesitantly grabbed a pen and a napkin from his messy bedside table and jotted it down. He didn’t really have a plan, he didn’t even know why he took the address down. He just knew his heart ached when he looked at Arthur–or Alexander, knowing that he knew nothing of his past life with Merlin. 

Merlin shut the laptop and pushed it to the side. Outside his door and down in the kitchen he could hear his housemate puttering around, no doubt making her nightly tea by the looks of the setting sun outside his window. Merlin followed the noise and found exactly that. 

Mildred Gilmore was eighty-four and probably his best friend, which might have been sad if he actually was the age he looked, but he was thousands of years older than her and could relate more than she knew. He grabbed the milk out of the fridge for her and smiled, noticing she had already set out a cup for him.

She turned around and poured hot water over the tea leaves. “Ah Merlin. I see you’ve ventured out of that cave of yours.” Her English accent was still thick as if she moved to the U.S. just a month ago not seventy some odd years ago with her parents. It reminded him of home. 

“I felt obligated to come out sometime.” He watched her wince as her wrist twisted to pour the water. “Do you need more salve?”

She set the kettle back on the stove. “You know, I had just run out of it the other day. It’s amazing what it does for my arthritis. Just a few days without it and I’m back reduced to being about as useful as a wet toilet roll! It’s pure magic, Merlin,” she whispered with a smirk.

He added milk to his tea. “I’ll get you some tomorrow.” Merlin hadn’t forgotten all Gaius had taught him. He still practiced some remedies the physician showed him; in fact that’s how he made his living and survived the 18th century. But in this century when natural medicine wasn’t as in practice he resorted to something he knew best; running messages. Save for Mildred, who Merlin specially made rose salve with a little bit of healing spells interwoven inside for her debilitating arthritis. In exchange for it, she gave Merlin a special deal on rent because Mildred claimed that Merlin provided her with liquid gold every other month or so. 

Merlin returned back to his room with half a cup of lukewarm tea, a plate of biscuits and an idea. Goddess, it had been ages since he fabricated a resume. 

The Hightower Corporation’s office was in a building on the corner of E 41st St and Park Ave. Merlin found out they shared it with the headquarters of a outdoor supplies chain store and a Starbucks, which is where he sat while he contemplated what the fuck he was about to do. 

Last night, over tea with Mildred, Merlin mentioned that he had quit his job, fabricating a lie that he didn’t like his new boss. Mildred had told him that it was nothing to worry about, companies were hiring all the time and Merlin—with his fantastic work ethic would have no problem finding a new job. This got Merlin thinking. The Hightower Corp, being a new company would be needing new employees for their new American office. He found an application online for their mailroom and he sent in his new and improved and slightly made up resume. Lucky for Merlin, he got a call the next day to come in later that week and interview. 

So here Merlin found himself sitting in the first floor Starbucks waiting for his heart to beat out of his chest and into his cup of coffee. He’d shown up three hours early after not sleeping a wink the night before. But he could feel him—Arthur—in the building. Being this close to him was having an affect on Merlin. He never realized the feeling that Arthur’s absence gave him until he was near again. Merlin wondered desperately if Arthur felt something too; if maybe he might come running in the doors looking for someone whom he didn’t even know just because his heart told him to. 

Merlin was met in the lobby by a very dull, pale man. Up close he smelled like paper and ink and his name was something generic like Todd. He led Merlin to the rows of elevators and pressed up the up arrow. Merlin opened his mouth to say something but snapped it shut in a second. They could just be going to a room upstairs for the interview, who would want to interview in a mailroom downstairs, right?

Todd led Merlin to the tenth floor and into an office. The office was obviously freshly decorated. It still smelled like fresh paint and there were boxes lining the room, no doubt holding knick-knacks and decorations for the barren room. 

“Just sit here, Mr Hightower should be in soon,” Todd said. He had one of those slimy New Yorker accents that made him sound like he should be working as a bouncer at a club, not dressed in a suit at an office building. Which was ridiculous because Todd couldn’t have weighed more than a buck thirty soaking wet.

“Why would Mr Hightower be interviewing me?” Merlin laughed a little. Todd must be a fucking idiot. 

But Todd obviously seemed to think Merlin was the idiot. “Uh, I don’t know. Maybe he wants to interview his own assistant?”

Todd left quickly after that which was probably a good thing because Merlin almost immediately fell to the floor and passed out. His stomach dropped to his knees and he was so grateful that he followed Todd’s order to sit down because he just might have smashed his head on the oak desk when he collapsed and that was no way to meet your new boss. 

Merlin had about three seconds to have his panic attack, but then he desperately needed to get to work. Somehow, Todd had fucked up and mixed him up with someone else. At least that’s what Merlin was sticking to. Unless of course this was destiny at work again…

Merlin realized that his resume definitely did not fit the needs of an assistant to the CEO of an insurance company. Hell, he probably wasn’t even technically qualified to work in a mailroom, but if there is one thing that Merlin knew better than he knew himself, was how to take care of Arthur. Alexander couldn’t be that different. They were from vastly different time periods, but they were essentially the same person, right? All he had to do was talk his way through it; Merlin had been bullshitting his way through stuff for millennia, this wasn’t going to be any different. 

Merlin took out his resume from the folder he brought and waved a hand over it. He couldn’t see himself, but he knew his eyes lit up a brilliant gold as he changed what was on the paper to something more suitable. Merlin wasn’t sure what Alexander was looking for but hopefully, just hopefully he could worm his way into his mind somehow. Maybe give him a little reminder of the good old days. Yeah, he was a shit servant sometimes, but Merlin was Arthur’s best friend until the end. Surely death couldn’t have wiped the love Merlin had for Arthur away. 

But what Merlin wasn’t expecting was to see Morgana walk in. She was as elegant as she was before; that long dark hair, bright green eyes and angular face. The only difference was her heels—which looked precariously high—and made her all the more intimidating. She was staring at paperwork in her hands, and nearly didn’t notice him until she sat at Arthur’s—her? desk and Merlin cleared his throat. 

She jumped but then immediately smiled. “Oh my, I’m so sorry. Here I am so distracted by everything I didn’t even see you sitting there!”

Merlin thought back to the last time he’d seen Morgana in the old days. He could still feel the weight of Excalibur in his hands as he plunged it into her abdomen, the way he pushed her limp body off the sword, now coated black, slick with her blood. He’d watched the light leave her pale green eyes. ( _ Again _ . He told himself. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen her lie in death. Well, kind of.) When Merlin met her, they were once filled with such love for him; adoration for the servant boy who had given Arthur a friend he had never had before, and actually, a friend to her as well. The rage that was held in them the last few years she’d been alive was almost incomprehensible to Merlin. It had been heartbreaking for him. He so badly wanted to save her, but she had dug her own grave and Merlin had been the one forced to bury her. 

Now he was standing and shaking her hand. “I’m Merlin.”

Her eyebrows arched as she sat back down and motioned for him to do the same. She leaned back and crossed her legs. Merlin searched her face for some look of recognition, something to tell him that this wasn’t all a lost cause that would break his heart in the end. “What a peculiar name! Merlin.  _ Merlin.  _ I like that.”

“I’m sorry, Ms Hightower. I’m just a little confused. I was under the impression that I would be interviewing for Ar–Alexander’s assistant, not yours.”

Morgan straightened her back. “Oh no! I’m so sorry about that! Alex must not have told Todd anything.  _ How typical,” _ she rolled her eyes Last night, Alex and I made a bet. It was over who got the office with the better view of the city.” She motioned to the wall of windows showing the New York skyline where Merlin had made his home. “I obviously won and we had the contents of each room switched early this morning.

Morgan leaned forward in her chair and rested her elbows on the desk as if she was going to share a secret with Merlin. He leaned in too. “Alex hired an assistant yesterday also. But, if you’re not too perturbed about this fuss we can still continue this interview. If you don’t mind, of course.”

Merlin paused. He had to think this through. This wasn’t an ideal situation; working for Morgana instead, but this might be his only chance to get near Arthur at all. If he turned down her offer, he would have to hope he could still get a mailroom job just to be around. He couldn’t let this opportunity pass. 

Merlin let an easy smile flit over his face. As much as it bothered him he wasn’t going to let it show. “Ms Hightower it’s no problem at all.”

She sighed and seemed more than relieved. “Please Merlin, call me Morgan.” 


End file.
